Island Church (??? World)

[scribble_puppet]

Voices

Crackling

Headache

Ash

Amber blinks.

White dress

Charred bars

People in robes

Torches

"SHIT!" She scrambles up, briefly tangling herself in the trailing sleeves of the dress that she has never worn before.

A brief flash of horrified realization- someone else changed her clothing- flickers in her brain before she takes in the greater horror.

She's in a cage. Suspended over a large brazier filled with wood. The woman is there, and Johnny, and people she doesn't know, all holding lit torches. The circle symbol is patterned on the floor. The woman is chanting something. Everyone is focused on Amber, with strange, reverent expressions.



Amber screams, rattling the cage door.

Comments

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

By a certain logic, it's not turning on them, merely purifying them, as they had its host.

Fire SHITSHITSHIT
Amber jerks back, tumbling when her legs twist underneath.

The angel pulls back slightly, and dives for Rachel.

[futures_of_ash]

Aw crap. "Amber!" Rachel called, worried. "That was just me, it won't burn you. You know my power looks like flames? I need that power right now. I promise, once we're okay and free I won't wear flames around you but you have to trust me right now!"

Yes, she really needed that power, especially considering the diving angel thing. The best thing to do when someone is diving at you like that? Haul a leg back and kick the attacking solidly.

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

God is strangely vulnerable to being kicked in the chest. There's a wet KRAK and it reels back.

Panic bursts through Amber, searing and .

it hurts it hurts it hurts I'm going to die here it hurts

The angel glows red again.

[futures_of_ash]

"YOU ARE NOT GOING TO DIE, AMBER. I am a being of Life, and if that means I have to hold you together with my bare hands I will." And the very air rang with the promise in those words. She was pretty sure she could negate any damage done to her friend through the abomination, but she didn't like the connection going on at all.

She shifted a foot back, altering her stance in order to bring her ankle closer to Amber. "Reach out, touch my leg. Please." Out here was hectic...but in an inner mindscape they could have all the time they needed to figure things out.

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

Something

glowing

against the black

She reaches forward

Her fingers close around the ankle.

[futures_of_ash]

CONNECTION.

Rachel flooded through that contact like a tidal wave leaving something warm and soothing in her wake as she did so. The outside world could go hang for a few heartbeats, in here there were much more important things to handle.

She reached out, crafting a mindscape that would be soothing to the girl, something familiar where Amber could find her feet again. A subway train, clicking through a dark tunnel. Rachel sat upon one of the worn seats, wearing a leather jacket and jeans, just waiting for her friend.

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

Amber floats, white dress glowing around her, hugging herself. Red, gooey chains stretch like wings from her back, reaching past the ceiling.

rachel...

[futures_of_ash]

Rachel stood up and moved down the rocking car to stand under Amber, offering a hand. No flame here, no need at the moment. "Come on down Amber. Let's go find the source and kill it." Or cut it away. Something. They'd see what they could do when they got there.

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

She looks up, very slowly.

Her skin is covered in red patches, like terrible, bloody birthmarks.

can't

The chains are in her, through her. Her hands are manacled, the links disappearing into her chest. The dress is too long to see her feet, though it's a good bet something similar is going on there.

this is what my potential was. this.

[futures_of_ash]

"Yes, you can." She continued holding her hand up. "This is your head, your space. No one and nothing is stronger than you here." Not even so terrible and bloody, born through the sinew and blood of her friend.

Nothing.

"You can't think it's stronger than you or it wins. We aren't going to allow that." Ever.

"Your potential has just as many paths as anyone else. Some of them are terrible, but most of them are not. this is just one and it's not over yet. Take my hand."

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

Her eyes .

Impressions-
a young girl (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v480/furikku/SilentMilliways/greenfamilypic.jpg)


i didn't have a father.
that thing
is

[futures_of_ash]

"No" Just that simple word to cut through the images and the bitter, bitter taste of defeat in the air. "You were meant to be Amber. No one gets to decide your future, or what you should be, no matter where you came from or what was done to bring your life about. Every life is free. Don't let them force you that way."

She was still waiting for her friend's hand.

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

i can't do anything else...

The chains snake around her, through her. Drops of red spatter the floor.

what else am i even good for?

[futures_of_ash]

"You're my friend. That alone takes courage and more strength than most people possess. You jumped off a roof with me." What else is she good for indeed! Dumb, defeatist questions!

"Plus how will your mother get a new home if you can't take me to her and we all can't go together to look for a house?"

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

Mom.

Friend.

It's not a lot

but it's two connections to the world (technically more than one world)

two reasons not to destroy and die.

With a rattle, some of the chains loosen.

She reaches forward, grimacing in pain as the links in her chest drag against her insides.

[futures_of_ash]

Rachel took the girl's hand and smiled, proud of her. One part done?

She gave Amber's fingers a gentle squeeze, sending a bit of strength through that connection as well. "Come on, we can't stay here. We're going t have to go find the problem to fix it. Come down?"

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

More rattling, clinking, and some wet sounds.

Red splotches hit the ground.

Amber cries out.

Her feet touch the plastic floor.

don't... think i can go anywhere. She weakly jerks her head toward the "wings."

[futures_of_ash]

Rachel didn't even glance at those wings, instead she laid both hands on Amber's shoulders, anchoring her to that creaking floor. "Those aren't yours Amber, leave them here."

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

they're kind of... in me.

[futures_of_ash]

"Your mind. You choose what's part of your body here.Remember how it feels to be without them."

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

they've always been there. just didn't know before.

[futures_of_ash]

"Bullshit." Rachel said simply. "It's hard to hide things like that from yourself. Your subconscious would have known, so if they've always been there you would never be in small spaces in your mind. Yet when ever I visit we're in tunnels."

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

they were inside.

[futures_of_ash]

"No" Rachel wasn't going to let that drop at all Amber, she just wasn't. "They were part of the parasite that claimed a bit of you to live in."

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

it's the same as me, isn't it?

something inside that she couldn't control

like a reflex

like a heartbeat

would i be me if it weren't there?